The Next Industrial Revolution

“It’s not that we have to regulate waste. What we have to do is eliminate the entire concept of waste,” proposes architect and green crusader Bill McDonough in The Next Industrial Revolution, a new 55-minute film by Earthome Productions.

The film documents the architect, in partnership with chemist Michael Braungart, and their leadership role in what is variously called the “green”, “sustainable”, or “environmental” movement. The partners advocate a complete transformation in the relationship between commerce and nature.

The film tells the story of McDonough and Braungart’s work with major companies that produce shoes, cars, furniture, and fabrics (Nike, Ford Motor, Herman Miller Furniture, Design Tex respectively). It demonstrates how their ideas and work provide strategies for change.

“If you see a tragedy and you don’t do anything about it and your designer is signaling your intentions then you might as well have intended for the tragedy to occur,” McDonough says. “If you say it’s not a part of your plan then it’s a part of your de-facto plan. It’s the thing that’s happening because you have no plan, and once you realize that you are strategically tragic, you realize that it is time to have a strategy of change.”

McDonough’s work proves that grass-roots movements, like environmentalism, need buy-in from powerful, monied sources in order to succeed. He’s doing everything in his power to make sure that happens. Earthome Productions, Box 212, Stevenson, MD 21153; (410) 902-3400. www.thenextindustrialrevolution.org